The present invention relates to an apparatus for shaping plastics material preforms into plastics material containers. Such apparatuses, in particular stretch-blow moulding machines, have long been known from the prior art. The containers are received by blow moulding stations and are expanded, for example by application of pressurised air, to form plastics material containers.
Furthermore, blow moulding machines which enable production of the plastics material containers under aseptic conditions are known from the prior art. For example, WO 2010020529 A2 describes a stretch blow moulding machine for beverage containers, in which the blow moulding procedure takes place in a sterile chamber. Any risk to hygiene which could lead to contamination, must be avoided in such sterile chambers. The subject matter of WO 2010020529 A2 is hereby fully incorporated by reference in the subject matter of the present application.
Such a blow moulding station generally consists of two mould carriers, which are movable in relation to one another and receive the actual blow moulds, possibly by means of carrier shells. These two blow mould carriers are movable in relation to one another so as to carry out an opening procedure for insertion of the plastics material preform and for removal of the finished, blown bottle.
It is further known that, for procedural reasons, the blow moulds are cooled, since they could otherwise be heated unduly by the introduced heat of the heated plastics material preforms.
Such blow moulding stations also preferably comprise a “pressure pad” on at least every mould carrier per blow moulding station. Pressurised air is applied to this pressure pad during the blow moulding procedure so as to compensate the deformation of the mould carrier owing to the internal pressure of up to 40 bar.
So as to perform these two functions, that is to say the cooling of the mould and the pressure pad, media such as cooling media and pressurised air are guided via hoses to the shaping stations or blow moulding stations in today's stretch-blow moulding machines.
Such hoses and also couplings represent a hygiene risk, however. On the one hand, such hose systems are difficult to clean and to sterilise under some circumstances. On the other hand, they prevent a neat and clean appearance of the clean chamber.
The object of the present invention is therefore to improve the sterilisation and maintenance of the sterilisation for such blow moulding machines.